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18
OCTOBER 21,2011
JOEL HAMLEY
• community
WWW.JUSTOUT.COM
Principal Broker, A B U
I he Real in Realtor
Voices Of The Occupation
Rural Organizing Project founder Marcy Westerling brings
Big Pharma med shortages to the frontlines
BY RYAN J. PRADO, WITH PHOTOS BY MARTY DAVIS
T he O nly Known
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Since October 6, the Occupy movement
has been an unavoidable presence in the
heart of Portland. Initially, a several-thou
sand-strong march through downtown set
tled at Chapman and Lownsdale Squares,
prompting lively debate between both the
protest’s “tent city” inhabitants and city offi
cials, including Mayor Sam Adams. In soli
darity with the Occupy movement’s giving
voice to the 99 percent are sizable chunks of
rural and small-town activists. Marey West
erling just may represent the blueprint for
this segment of protesters.
As founder of the Rural Organizing Proj
ect, established in 1992, Westerling’s reputa
tion as a critical grassroots activist precedes
her. W ith ROP, she sought to unite small
town leaders and figure out how to address
hot-hutton progressive issues. W hile the
radical right attempted to lay claim to more
politically isolated towns throughout Oregon
during the late 1980s and early ‘90s, ROP
stepped in at a crucial legislative time for
statewide civil rights: Measure 9. That initia
tive—championed by the Oregon Citizens
Alliance in 1992, which targeted gays and
lesbians as “abnormal,” and would have rele
gated the LGBTQ, community to second-
class citizenship—was defeated in no small
part due to the work of ROP.
Though queer rights became a cornerstone
for the state’s introduction to ROP, the group,
says Westerling, tried to put that fight into a
larger context of understanding how the
right was using the queer rights platform to
build and move the “kind of agenda that
we’ve seen unrolling over the last two de
cades.” ROP has made broad efforts to ex
pand its activist agenda in the 18 years since
its inception.
“I think in small-town America, where
you have fewer people willing to talk about
progressive issues, it’s really important that
they don’t just talk about one issue of con
cern,” explains Westerling.
But for Westerling, 52, her participation in
solidarity with the nationwide Occupy move
ment revolves around one very serious issue
of concern. She was diagnosed with advanced
ovarian cancer in spring 2010, necessitating
her departure from leadership at ROP, and
her subsequent fellowship position at the
like-minded Open Society Institute. Her
condition continues to worsen due to her be
ing placed on a wait list for the drug Doxil.
Westerling openly blames the profit-fo
cused mechanics of the corporate pharma
ceutical engine for the rationing of the drug.
During the first day of Occupy Portland, she
could be seen holding a sign reading: “Wait
Listed for Chcmo; Thanks Big Pharma and
Wall Street; Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer.”
“It’s really about this whole progression
that we’ve been seeing about profit and greed
leading the values of our country,” explains
Westerling, who notes that there are more
than 200 intravenous drugs that are no lon
ger available or are very hard to get for folks
with serious medical conditions. “M y cancer
is physical, it’s growing, I need that drug
right now. But instead of being able to get it
any time in 2011, I’m on a wait list. Obvi
ously my cancer is not going to wait. M y life
is very much in jeopardy as a result of this
kind of greed.”
W hile the mainstream media has thus far
struggled to put a face to the Occupy move
ment—outside of parodying the easy target
of squatting masked as neo-hippie activism—
its general anti-corporate grievances are typi
fied by strong, in-your-face cases like that of
Westerling.
Doxil reportedly represents less than 1
percent of pharmaceutical corporation John
son &. Johnson’s revenues. But Ben Venue
Labs, the manufacturer of the drug, claims
that the problem is not one of profit. Rather,
in an article published in 't he C ourier-Journal,
a Ben Venue spokesperson would only say
that the company was facing “capacity re
straints” with the manufacturing of such a
complex drug. These statements disregard
the fact that Ben Venue is seeking to get out
of the Doxil business altogether, meaning
J&J will be even harder pressed to produce
Doxil for the many patients nationwide in
need of it.
It’s this kind of profit-fueled bureaucracy
that most Occupy protesters shake a com
mon fist at. For her part, Westerling feels
that her foundations with ROP have made it
possible for not only metro areas, but also
small communities—as many as 10 small
Occupy movements arc currently function
ing in Oregon—to stand up and be heard.
“Our big effort has been to say, ‘This is not
an urban anger, this needs to be really a 99
percent anger,’ which includes an enormous